Getting a driving license in Phuket
How to get a driving license in Phuket… If you plan to stay in Phuket for a while, you probably will consider renting or buying a motorbike, which means you will need a driving license. If you have an international one, then you have no problem, but if you don’t, driving without a Thai license will open the door to potential and serious problems. The smallest of them is to be stopped by police, especially in Patong or Chalong, where they know they can make a lot of pocket money on tourists as most don’t carry one when renting a bike.
If you claim that you forgot it at home, the fine is 1000 baht, but you will be charged 300 baht on average. In most cases, you can settle the problem on the spot, even if you have to pay a bit more as the time wasted to go to the police station plus the round trip by motorbike, taxi, or tuk-tuk will cost you more anyway. More serious is the case of an accident. Without a license, you would be considered the wrong driver, whatever the circumstances of the accident were. Insurance doesn’t apply. This might be the end of your holiday or worse.
To get your driving license, you will need to go to the transport office in Phuket town with a copy of your passport and a copy of your work permit or a Certificate of Residency from immigration if you don’t have a work permit, in which case you will need to be on a Non-immigrant visa, not a tourist visa. You will also need a simple medical certificate proving you can drive. Get the medical certificate done in a small clinic; it’s a lot faster than those big hospitals. In any case, you will need to bring the originals. Note that a copy machine is at the coffee shop next to the license office. There will be no need for photos as they have a camera/printer that does the whole process on the spot. There used to be a time when you could ‘buy’ your license, but this time seems to be gone since the day female officers took charge of the driving license office 😀
Come as early as 8 am to get the paperwork ready, so you will be able to get the 10 am video and theory test. Someone will review your docs and tell you if anything is wrong or missing, and you might still have time to get it fixed.
You will then go through preliminary tests designed to check if you are colour-blind, have slow reflexes or if you are obviously unfit to drive. You will be sitting in front of a set of driving pedals: one for the gas, one for the break. In front of you will be makeshift traffic lights… when the light turns green, press the gas, and as soon as it turns red, press the break. Sounds simple? It is! But I’ve seen some guy not reacting at all… several times! Was he unable to react, or did he not understand the game? I don’t know, but the inspector told him to go home… 😀
There will also be the classic colour blindness tests, but as the cards start to fade, it is a bit hard to tell.
Once these are successfully completed, you’ll be asked to come back for the second part at 10 am. You could bring a book or an iPad, but the place is very hot, and it’s not fun. As you come by bike like everyone else, go have a coffee in Phuket town; it is a better alternative, or if you didn’t study at home, learn your traffic road signs from the signboards on the walls and practice the question on the computer made available for this purpose in the waiting room.
At 10 am, a lady will take you to a classroom and give you a short but clear brief of what the video and test are about and strongly recommend you not to even think of using a third party company to get your license done or to get a fake one.
The English video lasts maybe 30 minutes, the soundtrack is not very good, and the TV sets are quite small, so the good advice is to sit in the first rows, which is usually easy as almost everyone does what they used to do at school: run for the back seats—big mistake! 😀 What will be said is important; fortunately, the English narration is very good despite the poor sound.
This 14 or 15 chapters video is the key to your test success, so be attentive… a good clue is that it is repeated two or three times when it is important. Many questions rotate around ‘where to park and not to park’, U-turns, who goes first at intersections and when to take over. There are questions about traffic signs, but none are explained in the video; you need to learn the BEFORE you get there. You can review most of Thailand’s Road Signs here, they are not much different from the signs in your country, but you might be surprised by how little we remember.
Once you are done with the video, trying to memorise a few figures in your head, you’ll be taken to the next room full of numbered computers resembling old arcade games. Insert the card you will be given, and the game starts with one question with or without illustration and 4 possible answers. You have one hour to answer 30 questions, which are more than necessary.
Here is a tip that was my first downfall: when you answer a question, the dot in front of the question on the right hand of the screen will turn GREEN; this does NOT mean it is correct, it just means you answered it! As all my questions turned green, I was building confidence and started to answer faster. You need 23 correct answers out of 30 to pass, so with all my green dots, I thought I was good at this game… wrong! When the verdict ‘Failed’ fell, I was in shock! In my defence, some of the questions were weird, and others came back 3 times!
So, as you cannot take the test twice on the same day, you’ll have to sacrifice another day; the lady will keep your documents in the room for up to 3 months, so you don’t have to go through the first phase and show up at 10 am. If you fail the first time, succeeding the second time feels like the day you got your first driving license when you were 18!
Once you successfully pass your theory, you will go and collect your license in case of renewal or will have to come back at 1 pm for the driving test, which is usually a walk in the park (or a piece of cake) as all the people coming to get their license comes… by bike!
Prices for license renewal are 160 baht, for expired license renewal, 360 baht, and for a brand new one, I don’t know but will find out soon; I was too excited to ask. Once all the paperwork has been duly done, move to desk 5, where the lady will retake your photo with her camera and print you a beautiful, shiny driving license right there in just one minute! The first license is valid for a year, and the next one is for five years. If the license has expired, you would be charged a small fee when stopped by police, maybe 300 baht, but worse: if, like me, your license has expired for more than a year, you’ll have to take the whole theory test again! (not the driving.)
Congratulations—you are now safe to drive, but remember to wear your helmet at home!
Disclaimer: This is my personal experience, and things may vary, especially for the required documents. Please go and check first!
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